March 2017

Google Display Network now has a new location extension ad format

As of March 14th, Google Display Network ads will automatically include information like photos, business hours, and your store’s location.

According to Google ‘’a foodie browsing cooking blogs might see local information for a bakery, making it easy for her to visit your physical store and make a purchase. In fact, early testing has shown that advertisers see an increase in click to their business, with 60% of click on this extension related to directions or store information.’’

To create your location extension ads, go to your AdWords account and click the location extension format button (can be found under general purpose ads). There you can upload three images, a logo, ad headline and description. Once you have a display campaign set up with location extensions, AdWords may automatically include your business. Location, hours, and other details within your display ads. *Text, responsive and 300 x 250 image ads might be dynamically converted to the location extension format to help drive traffic to your business locations.

To opt out of location extensions in a display campaign, select location extensions on the extensions tab in AdWords:

Click ‘’Extension’’

Select Campaigns (or ad groups)

Select one or more campaigns (or ad groups). Those selected are the ones you would like to turn off location extensions

Select use campaign location extension

Select disable location extensions.

Upgraded click-to-call ad extensions

Google has introduced some upgrades to click-to-call ad extensions. These include:

Account-level call extensions: With this new feature, you can set call extensions on an Account level, instead of individually by ad groups or campaigns.

New Ad look: Google is testing different headline options. For example, including business name in order to encourage a higher click through rate.

Updated reporting: In your click-to-call ad reporting, you will now be able to see phone impressions and phone calls.

Bing Ads editor is now available globally

The desktop tool is now out of beta and available to everyone. This tool enables advertisers to build out campaigns and make several changes at once.

The Mac version of this tool has been at the top of advertisers wish lists. Advertisers can download Bing Ads Editor for Mac here.

New efforts launched by Google to flag upsetting or offensive content in search

Google is looking into new efforts to identify content that is potentially upsetting or offensive.

The effort involves over 10,000 of Google’s quality raters being given searches to conduct, drawn from real searches that Google sees. Their goal is to rank top ranking web pages and decide whether or not these pages contain upsetting or offensive content and to flag them if they do.

According to Google, upsetting/offensive content typically includes the following:

Content that promotes hate or violence against a group of people based on criteria including (but not limited to) race or ethnicity, religion, gender, nationality or citizenship, disability, age, sexual orientation, or veteran status.

Content with racial slurs or extremely offensive terminology.

Graphic violence, including animal cruelty or child abuse

Explicit how to information about harmful activities (e.g. how tos on human trafficking or violent assault)

Other types of content which users in your locale would find extremely upsetting or offensive.

Programming languages answers now easier to search for

Google announced that for queries containing sequences of 2-3 special characters, they will return results on the meaning of these sequences in programming languages. According to Google’s announcement, you can search for technical queries such as [== vs ===] and [+=].

As an example, Google said if you search for the meaning of [c++17]. You will get results for the well-known programming language instead of c17, which brings up a Boeing airplane.

This update also includes organisation and product names that include punctuation. So, for companies Notepad++, Google will now return more accurate results.

Google’s ‘Fred’ algorithm update

On March 8th, Google rolled out a new update called Fred. This update targets low value content. Some sites affected experienced anywhere from a 50% to 90% drop in their organic traffic from Google.

Google confirmed the Fred algorithm update, stating that the sites targeted by this update are those that were not abiding by the webmaster guidelines.

Heavy advertising on site (which makes it difficult to differentiate from the content).

Fewer/no ads but affiliate heavy

Some small business sites

Local home service ads get service area map

Google is testing and expanding features within their Home Service Ads. The redesign highlights the specific service areas that each individual business covers with a map shown right in the search results page.

For example, if you search for ‘’ San Jose plumber’’ you’ll get a list of services but you’ll also get a more detailed page that includes the new service area map. The landing page also includes these maps to make it clear the areas covered by each business.

This new feature will save local business ad costs as customer leads will be more refined to their location needs.

Enter the name or address of your business, then select it from the search results. *You may see a dialog showing part of the email address that verified the listing. If you manage this email address, sign into that account to access your business listing.

Fill out the form. The current listing owner may need to contact you for more information, so you won’t be able to submit your request without sharing your contact details with them.

Click

The current listing owner will receive an email asking them to get in touch with you, and you’ll receive a confirmation email. Check on the status of your request by clicking the link in your confirmation email.

Allow a full 7 days for the current listing owner to respond to your request. If you don’t hear back after 7 days, you’ll be able to verify your affiliation with the business to gain access to the listing.

Facebook adds disputed content tag to flag fake news

Facebook has rolled out a new flagging system which will mark fake news as ‘’disputed’’.

Facebook is relying on non-partisan third parties to determine if a news story flagged by a user is fake or factual. Facebook is flagging individual stories rather than websites and won’t take the article off its social network.

Stories that are marked as ‘’dispute’’ will also include links to website that specialist in debunking conspiracy theories, alternative facts and fake news.

Twitter will offer viewership stats for Moments Makers

Twitter has rolled out Moments Analytics. People who have created a moment will be able to see the total views, unique viewers, completion rates, shares and likes.

To view these measurements, people can tap on an icon in the top-right corner of the Moment in Twitter’s app or the ‘’…’’ icon when viewing the Moment on Twitter’s site.

Twitter Moments are curated stories showcasing the very best of what’s happening on Twitter. The Moments are presented as slide shows within the Twitter app.

Facebook will let publishers show more ads in instant articles

Facebook announced updates to the Automatic Ads Placement features and is introducing flexibility so that ads can be placed more frequently in articles, now up to every 250 words (previously every 350 words).

According to the announcement, publishers can place ads manually within the article or choose between three options for automatic placements: ads every 250,350, or 500 words. ‘’

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23 Cool Tools for Social Media Marketers

In this post, Social Media Examiner’s Michael Stelzner, breaks down 23 tools and app for every social media marketers’ toolbox. Read full post here.

Why Brands Should Embrace UGC (user-generated content) as Part of Their Marketing Strategy

In this post on Marketing Land, Columnist Travis Wright discusses user-generated content and the benefits it can have on your marketing strategy for example it can increase engagement and consumer trust and ultimately drive sales. Read the full post here.

Better Alternatives to ‘’Expert Roundup’’ Style Content

In this whiteboard Friday, Rand Fishkin explains why expert roundups aren’t the best use of your time and offer better solutions to this popular style of content. Check it out here.

The new PR: 5 Content and News Distribution Strategies You Need to Master

In this post, President of Fushion PR, Bob Geller outlines 5 fives you can master PR’s new rules. Read the full post here.

IAB Connect 2017 Digital Convergence -Redefining Advertising

When: Thursday, April 6th: 08:00 am – 1:00 pm

Where: Guinness Storehouse, St James Gate, Dublin, D8

About: With speakers from General Mills & Yoplait, VE Interactive, Sheology and Facebook, this event discusses advertising in the everchanging world of digital.

Bizxexpo.ie 2017

When: Wednesday, April 26th. 10:00 am – 5:00 pm

Where: Citywest Hotel Dublin, Belgard Road, Saggart, Co.Dublin

About: Over 140 businesses will be showcasing their business and products at this annual event. There will be free workshops on the day and also, experts from various industries available at the knowledge hub all day to give you free advice.

Ecommerce Expo Ireland

When: Tuesday, April 4th. 08:00 am – 5:30 pm

Where: Croke Park, Cusack Exhibition Suite, Dublin.

About: This one day event will have speakers who will discuss key issues around internationalisation, personalisation, multi-channel, content management, SEO, digital marketing, eCommerce platforms and much more.

Social Media Summit 2017

About: This 2-day event will bring together leading social media professionals both nationally and internationally. Speakers will highlight the importance of incorporating social media into your marketing strategy and demonstrate how it can add real value to your business in terms of both revenue and business growth.

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